


Christmas in Alexandria

by April_Valentine



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Christmas fic, Christmas love and sexy times, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 06:27:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9165973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/April_Valentine/pseuds/April_Valentine
Summary: It's Christmas Eve in Alexandria and Rick has gone on a run with Aaron. It's snowing and their family, especially Daryl, is worried Rick won't make it back in time for Christmas.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Starfire_Wildheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starfire_Wildheart/gifts).



> For Starfire_Wildheart. It took me longer than I intended to finish this due to my holiday job taking more time than I thought it would but I'm glad to finally be able to post it for you. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Daryl stood at the gate of Alexandria, once again watching the road for any sign of Rick and Aaron returning. They’d left yesterday for a supply run but that had been before the snow had started. Now, the world was covered by at least six inches of heavy snow and there was no sign of them. Daryl shivered at the gate, wishing they had never left Georgia. Though Virginia was still considered to be in the south, the weather here in Alexandria was much more wintery than he had known before. 

Daryl hated the cold. He hated the snow. And he particularly hated being without Rick. 

He would have continued to stand and watch for his lover’s return but he knew that Carl and Judith were back at the house, also wondering when their father would come home. Though he hated to go back to them alone, Daryl knew they’d at least want some word, so he sighed in resignation and, tucking his freezing hands into his pockets, trudged back through the snowy streets toward the house they shared.

It was Christmas Eve. Daryl had never cared that much about Christmas – as a kid, he’d never received presents from Santa Claus as he’d once told Beth, nor had he gotten them from his parents, either. Sometimes he’d gotten a toy or maybe some clothes from a local church group or other charity, but the idea of decorating, putting up a tree or hanging lights around the windows was something other people did, not the Dixons. 

On the road, after they lost the farm, they’d been too hungry and tired to pay attention to the date and Christmas had come and gone that first winter without really celebrating it. Lori had been pregnant with Judith and they’d all been chilled through when Rick and Daryl had found a half burned out farmhouse. They’d gone inside and cleared out the walkers before lighting a fire in the fireplace and hunkering down together, warming up some canned soup to share that T-Dog had found in the basement. Maggie had done some counting and realized it was December 24th, Beth had started singing carols and the others had gradually joined in until everyone, except Daryl, had sung a few. He didn’t know the words and felt stupid singing anyway, even when Rick had looked at him expectantly on the chorus of Jingle Bells. So Daryl had gathered his crossbow and headed outside, only returning when he’d found a deer for the group to enjoy for their holiday meal the next day. While it hadn’t been particularly merry, at least they were all together, relatively safe and with enough food for once. Everybody had smiled at Daryl when he brought back the deer too and that had felt like a present to him, though he’d never say it out loud. 

Things were different now. Lori was gone and so were T-Dog and Beth and Hershel. But Glenn and Maggie were happy in their own house and they had Michonne and Sasha and Abraham and others who had joined them and become family too. Judith was growing every day and was a happy, contented baby. And Rick and Daryl were together. 

To Daryl, that would have been a Christmas miracle all on its own but within the walls of Alexandria, the holiday was actually being celebrated by the townspeople who had had so little contact with the real world outside their walls. Like the party they had thrown to welcome Rick’s group to their community, Daryl thought it was sort of stupid to waste time on a holiday that had no meaning now, considering how the world had changed, but he knew these people needed to hang on to their traditions.

So when Rick and Aaron had decided to go on the run to “find a few Christmas presents”, Daryl had agreed to stay home, help the others get the house ready and watch the kids.

Now, as he trudged along through the snow-covered streets, he was sorry he hadn’t gone along with them. He was worried they had run into trouble. It seemed that the walkers were slowed by the cold at least, but you never knew what kind of trouble other people you ran across out there would mean.

As he neared his own house, he saw Eric on the porch of his and Aaron’s home. The guy stood huddled in a sweater with a cap pulled low on his head. “No sign of them?” he called out as Daryl approached and Daryl could hear the disappointment in the other man’s voice.

“No,” Daryl informed him. “Not so far. But it’s still light… they could get back tonight.” He tried to sound positive when he said the words, knowing he would be repeating them for Carl in the next few minutes. 

Eric nodded to him and opened the door to his house to go back inside. Daryl noticed that a wreath was hanging on the door. He looked up and down the street, seeing various decorations and even a few lights flickering on the houses of their neighbors. That was a waste of electricity, as far as Daryl was concerned. 

He glanced up at the sky. It was going gray and the world around him was silent as the snow continued to fall. If anything, it looked like it was coming down heavier than it had been earlier in the day. Daryl didn’t like that – he didn’t like anything he wasn’t used to, didn’t like anything that kept Rick out of Alexandria when he should be home, didn’t like anything that kept him from the man he loved. 

Climbing the porch steps, Daryl stomped the snow from his boots and opened the door. Inside, the house was warm at least and Daryl thought how much better this was than being out there looking for a place to sleep as they had done through so many long months on the road. He shrugged out of his vest and long sleeved shirt, and pulled off his damp boots too, leaving them in the entryway. 

Carol heard him come in and shook her head fondly at him as he brushed the snow from his hair. 

“We have winter clothes, Daryl,” she scolded him. “You don’t need to go out in this weather in just those same things you always wear.”

He shrugged and grunted but didn’t bother replying. He knew that Rick was dressed warmly, in a heavy coat with boots and a hat, and that’s what mattered to him, more than his own comfort. Still, if the car they’d been driving broke down and they had to walk home… Daryl didn’t like to think about that. 

“Want some cocoa? I just made some for Carl,” Carol went on. “And there’s cookies in the kitchen too. _Christmas_ cookies.” She gave him one of her happy homemaker smiles and Daryl had to chuckle. 

“Did you say cookies?” 

Carl appeared, with Judith in his arms, managing to look both hopeful at the prospect of cookies and disappointed that his father wasn’t standing there with Daryl. Judith took one look at Daryl and squealed in delight, acting as if she hadn’t just seen him fifteen minutes earlier, her little arms reaching out for him. 

Daryl took her from Carl, unable to resist, flashing back to how tiny she had been at the prison when he’d been the first to feed her and thinking how much she had grown just since they’d come to Alexandria, now that they had enough food for her almost all the time. Judith reached out to grab the snow he hadn’t managed to get out of his hair and giggled at the coldness of it.

“You like that, Ass-kicker?” he asked her. Judith laughed, patting Daryl’s cold face with her warm little hands. His heart surged, loving the baby as much as if she were his own and missing Rick more in that moment than he had all day.

“Come on, Judith,” Carl said, taking her back from Daryl, “let’s have cookies.” 

Daryl followed Carl and Carol back to the kitchen, taking the mug of cocoa Carol handed him and watching as the kids enjoyed the cookies that Carol had baked. 

“Save some for Rick,” he told them, again worried about his lover out there in the cold and snow. 

“We will,” Carl promised. “No sign of him yet?” 

“No, but it’s still early,” Daryl said, trying to sound like he wasn’t worried. He met Carl’s eyes over the baby’s head and he knew he wasn’t fooling the boy at all, but neither of them said anything. Daryl took a sip of the cocoa, pausing to enjoy the sweet, chocolaty taste. “This is good,” he told Carol sincerely. He hadn’t had it many times as a kid but it reminded him of the cocoa mix his mother used to buy in the winter when they’d had enough money for it. 

“Olivia had it in the pantry,” Carol told him. “Just the kind you make with water, but it’s not bad.” 

“Cocoa and cookies?” Another member of the family chimed in then and Daryl nodded at Michonne who had just wandered down from upstairs. She took the mug Carol handed her and sniffed appreciatively. “This is just weird,” she observed before taking a sip and reaching for a cookie. She and Carol both laughed.

Daryl took his own cup and headed into the living room where he found his usual seat in the wide window ledge. From there, he could watch for Rick as he finished his cocoa. Michonne was right, it was weird. They had a house, they were safe inside, there were no walkers anywhere within the town’s walls and they had cocoa and cookies and it was Christmas Eve. Daryl still felt the culture shock of Alexandria more acutely than the others. For them, life on the road had been a one time thing, privation to be endured but now that it was over, a thing of the past. For Daryl, it hadn’t been much different from this way of life before the world changed. For the others, having cocoa and cookies _again_ was weird. Having them at all was what was weird for Daryl.

The others soon joined him in the living room. Carol picked up a book from the coffee table that she’d been reading and Michonne sat on the floor with Carl and the baby, handing Judith the little toys she’d accumulated in Alexandria and saying ‘thank you!’ dramatically when the toddler offered them back to her. 

The time crept by. It was all Daryl could do to not go back to the gate to watch for Rick. 

“Dad’s gonna be okay.” Carl’s voice penentrated his fog of worry. “You know he can take care of himself.”

“You’re right,” Daryl responded after a moment. He shrugged, feeling sheepish. He knew Rick could take care of himself and so could Aaron. Maybe he was stupid to be worrying but he just couldn’t help it. He hated this snow, there was too much he didn’t know and understand about it. 

“You just miss him, I know,” Carl went on, leaning in close to whisper to him. 

“Shoulda gone along,” Daryl groused. That was what he hated most about this; he hated not having gone along to watch Rick’s back. Hated staying home like some kind of wife or something. He hated having nothing to do but wait and worry. 

“How could he get a gift for you with you along?” Carl asked, rolling his eyes as if that concept was beyond Daryl’s understanding. 

Daryl scoffed. “Don’t need no gift. Told him that a hundred times.”

“And you expect him to listen?” Carl laughed. “Everybody’s doing gifts this year, Daryl.”

“Yeah, so I heard.” He settled back against the wall, ignoring the chill that came through the window. He had told the others he didn’t need anything and not to go to any trouble on his behalf, but he knew these people, knew they’d ignore what he said. They would still give him stuff tomorrow morning. So while he had continued to act like the holiday didn’t matter to him, he had managed to get some things for them too. He wasn’t used to getting or receiving gifts, but he wasn’t a total asshole.

The most important, of course, was his gift for Rick. Daryl had made it himself. It was a leather pouch that Rick could attach to his gun belt to carry things in, like some jerky to eat on a run or maybe a map and a pen to write with. Daryl had used the hide from a deer he’d hunted, cleaned it and cured it himself, then cut and sewed it with rawhide. He had enjoyed making it for Rick. It had been a nice way to spend some time and it had been sort of fun to watch it take shape. He hadn’t been able to think of something Rick really needed and just going on a run and finding him a new shirt or something just hadn’t felt right to Daryl.

It was already wrapped and under the tree, along with a few other presents that had been placed there by the family members. Some of them actually had real wrapping paper, others had been enclosed in newsprint and tied with twine. Carl and Eugene had cut down the tree and dragged it home and it had been decorated with cookies baked by Carol and hand strung berries and stuff… no popcorn though because instead of stringing it, everybody had been so excited to have some of the snack that they’d eaten all of it instead.

Now Judith was trying to get at some of the packages under the tree, while Carl laughed and attempted to distract her. Rick should be home, Daryl thought, seeing them as they played, being normal on Christmas Eve. He glanced out the window into the rapidly dimming street and still saw no sign of his lover on his way home. 

Frustrated, Daryl climbed out of the window ledge and stalked to the front door. He pulled his shirt and vest back on, then bent to shove his feet into his boots. His hand was on the doorknob when he heard Carol call his name.

“Put this hat on at least,” she said, coming up to him, holding out a knitted cap. 

Daryl grunted his thanks. Shaking his hair back off his face, he pulled the cap on, then turned back to the door.

“He’s all right. He’ll be home soon.”

“I know,” he told Carol as he strode through the door. He didn’t care that she was probably right; he just couldn’t sit home and wait any longer.

As he climbed down the steps, he noticed that Eric was once again on his own porch too. He nodded at the other man, who then headed down his steps to join him.

“I can’t take this waiting any longer,” Eric offered sheepishly as he came up beside Daryl. 

Daryl nodded, nothing that Eric was wearing a heavy coat and snow boots, along with a fur hat and wool scarf he had wrapped around his neck. Daryl shivered a little, secretly glad that he’d accepted the hat from Carol before leaving. The snow was coming down harder now.

“I don’t know if their car had snow tires,” Eric continued, seemingly unaffected by Daryl’s silence.

It most likely hadn’t. It wasn’t like you could go to an auto shop to buy tires made for driving in snow. And Rick probably hadn’t even thought about them as nobody had really needed them back in Georgia. Daryl thought about how slippery the roads would be in the snow and cold, how maybe they would get stuck or something or be going too fast and skid off the road into a snow bank.

“Aaron’s used to driving in snow,” Eric told him, as if following Daryl’s thoughts. “Even in this, they’ll be fine.”

Daryl grunted, not wanting to have to acknowledge what Eric was telling him, despite being grateful for the words. 

“You didn’t get much snow down in Georgia, did you?” Eric continued, as if unaware of his taciturn companion’s lack of conversational skills.

“Not much.” Their boots crunched on the snow as they walked. Daryl shook his arms in an effort to keep warm. “Maybe once every ten years.” That was a bit of an exaggeration but he figured he was supposed to say something and that was all he could come up with.

Eric chuckled, his breath puffing into the cold air. “It’s not exactly Antarctica around here either, but we get our share.” 

“Would you call this a blizzard?” Daryl asked suddenly, figuring that maybe Eric was in more of a position to know than he was. He wanted to know if there was a chance that the snow would get worse before it got better. He’d never been one to check weather reports, even if he was about to go hunting, and he missed very little about the old world, but this once he wouldn’t mind being able to tune in to a broadcast that would let him know what to expect on this night.

Eric paused before answering, taking a moment to scan the dark sky. “No, not really. It’s a heavy snow, yeah, but hardly a blizzard.”

“So…?” Daryl prodded. 

“So, it’s still coming down but I don’t think it’s going to end up being six feet deep or anything. It should end before morning.”

Daryl had no idea how Eric could know that, but he was willing to take his word for it.

“I keep wondering how the lack of industry is affecting the weather globally,” he went on. “You know… global warming… climate change… all that was because of all the fossil fuels being burned and with so little traffic and no factories these days, to say nothing of the lack of air conditioning… I keep wondering if the winters are going to get back to the way my parents used to talk about them.”

“People say that up north, the walkers practically stop moving in the really cold weather,” Daryl said. 

“That’d be great if it’s true,” Eric nodded. 

“We used to call them lurkers when they were just sitting around doing nothing,” Daryl mused. “Still aren’t safe to be around though. One of them bit Maggie’s father.” 

He didn’t often talk about the past or those they’d lost, but here in the chill air with Eric, for some reason, he’d blurted that out. 

“That how he died?” asked Eric.

“No way,” Daryl responded, unable to keep the smile off his face. “That old bastard was tough as they come. Rick chopped off his leg just below the knee and he lived.”

“What? I’ve… never heard of anything like that!” Eric looked truly impressed. 

“Saw it with my own eyes,” Daryl said, thinking fondly of Hershel. He still missed him and wished he’d made it to Alexandria with the rest of the group. He tried to keep his mind off the fact that if he’d only been able to find the Governor, Hershel would most likely still be alive. “He was unconscious for about a day and Rick handcuffed him to the bed – just to be safe -- but he woke up and was just fine.” 

“You guys are amazing, you know that?” Eric said, clearly in awe. “The stuff you’ve seen and done…”

Daryl looked away. “Wasn’t all good,” he muttered.

Eric’s expression changed right away and he looked contrite. “I know, man. Sorry if I brought up bad memories for you.”

“S’okay,” Daryl told him. “Not your fault.” He often thought about Hershel and about the others they had lost. Tonight just wasn’t the best time for those memories, with Rick still not home. A shiver passed through him as he felt his worries rise up once more, causing him to picture Rick trudging through the snow, stepping on half frozen walkers that weren’t quite as frozen as they should be.

“Tonight sort of reminds me of this story,” Eric continued after a moment, politely ignoring Daryl’s shiver. “Haven’t thought about it in years.”

“What story?” Daryl asked, welcoming any distraction at this point.

“You’ll laugh,” Eric said, shaking his head. 

“Doubt it.” 

“It’s from a kid’s book,” Eric clarified, obviously uncomfortable. 

Daryl didn’t say he hadn’t read many of those when he was a kid. Instead he just looked at Eric, trying to project that he wasn’t going to mock the guy.

“And it was more of a girl’s book.” Eric might have been blushing. Or it could have been the temperature; Daryl couldn’t be sure.

“So?”

“It was from Little House,” Eric finally admitted. “You remember the tv show?”

Daryl didn’t. So he just looked at Eric.

“Well, it was a show based on this series of books set in the late eighteen hundreds. _Little House on the Prairie_. I read them in elementary school. My sister had them,” he added, looking sheepish. “She told my dad I’d been reading them when she caught me.” A faraway look came into his eyes and he looked both hurt and angry. Though Daryl didn’t ask, he could guess what had happened. “My dad didn’t like his son reading girl books,” he admitted finally. “I couldn’t sit down for a week.” 

Something tightened in Daryl’s chest at those words. He knew what it was to be knocked around by your father and while he doubted Eric’s had been anywhere near as abusive as his own had been, it was a new concept to realize that someone else had been hit just for being who he was. Eric was sort of chuckling but Daryl recognized that as a tactic to make light of the past events, as if to say it hadn’t been that bad. 

“Fathers can be assholes,” he said softly, hoping that Eric would realize he understood. 

Eric’s eyes widened in some surprise and he just nodded at Daryl’s words. He was quiet a moment, then went on. “It was Christmas time and Pa had gone into the town for supplies while Ma and Laura and her blind sister, Mary, had waited. A big blizzard came and he didn’t make it home for Christmas… or maybe he arrived just in time or something. Turns out he’d been pretty close to their log cabin all along but the snow had been so heavy he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t been able to travel any farther, so he had built a shelter out of the snow and hunkered down. But without phones, he couldn’t call to let them know he was all right.”

“Sounds like the way things are now,” Daryl mused. One of the things he hated most about the changed world was the lack of communications. There wasn’t even a mail system, which the settlers in the old west had had, even if it had taken weeks or months for mail to arrive. Now, with no cell phones – no phones at all – nobody could let anyone know if something had happened, if they were going to be late, if they were okay… 

“I don’t mean I think it’s going to snow that much,” Eric’s anxious voice broke into Daryl’s reverie. He looked concerned. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you worry even more.”

Daryl shrugged. “Just wishin’ we had some way to stay in touch when someone’s gone on a run. I don’t miss much, but I do miss cell phones.”

“Tell me about it,” Eric responded with feeling. “The satellites are still up there… you’d think that if we could get power to the towers, somehow…” He gazed up at the sky as if looking for the satellites. Or perhaps hope.

Daryl agreed. Maybe someday, if they ever got the food situation worked out and had enough ammo and nobody was sick or missing, someone would think about starting some kind of mail route. Or seeing if they could get cell phones working again. Or even land line phones. Or something.

They had arrived at the gate. The world seemed silent, the snow enveloping the whole of Alexandria in a blanket of peace. If he wasn’t so concerned about Rick’s whereabouts, Daryl might have appreciated the beauty of the glistening trees and the silence that was like the woods back home. He suddenly felt a keen desire to stride out into the forest and do some hunting… but realized that the real thing he wanted to hunt was Rick.

A sudden banging on the gates grabbed both Daryl’s attention and Eric’s.

“Ho, ho, ho! Meee-errry Christmas!” a deep voice called.

It sounded faintly like Rick.

Daryl glanced at Eric and saw a huge grin break over his face. “It’s them!” the other man shouted, lunging for the gate.

Eric pulled back the lock and flung the gate wide.

There stood Aaron and Rick, both of them covered in snow, looking like they’d crawled through it on their way home. But they were both grinning so Daryl decided they must be all right.

Eric was a blur as he threw himself into his lover’s arms and Daryl noted they were kissing passionately in greeting. Less prone to public displays of affection, he just stood there locking eyes with Rick for a long moment.

“Your beard has snow in it,” he observed, fighting to keep a grin from his face. He tried to glare at his partner. “Worried the fuck outta me.” His glare didn’t work, because Rick was a sight for sore eyes and nothing any kid or adult could imagine would be a better present for Christmas than seeing this man standing before him, alive, uninjured, smiling.

Rick dropped the packs he was carrying and opened his arms wide. Daryl paused to glance at Aaron and Eric who were still kissing, then he shrugged and did what he’d been wanting to do all evening – he moved into Rick’s embrace.

Rick’s strong arms came around him, wrapping him close. His cold lips pressed a kiss under Daryl’s ear and Daryl reacted by putting his own arms around Rick and leaning back to look into his eyes. He didn’t care how cold Rick’s lips were, he needed them on his own _now_ so he kissed them, all his concern and love bleeding into the emphatic welcome.

Even Rick’s tongue felt chilly as it delved into Daryl’s mouth, but he didn’t care. He knew just how to warm Rick up and it started with this kiss. His hands came up to frame Rick’s red cheeks as he deepened the kiss, sucking his tongue deep, thinking warm thoughts of fires, blankets and their bodies entwined in their bed. He let one hand roam down to the back of Rick’s neck, while the other pulled off Rick’s hat and sank into his snow-damp curls. He pressed his whole body against Rick’s lean frame. He willed whatever warmth he possessed to flow from himself into Rick’s body. He began running his hands up and down Rick’s back, hoping to warm him through his clothes. He kissed him and kissed him again and then again, harder.

Then Rick leaned his cheek against his and just let Daryl hold him for a moment. “Did you miss me?” Rick asked, his voice sounding both hoarse and amused.

“You know I did. S’posed to be back hours ago. Kids are worried. Everybody’s worried.”

“But not you?” Rick squeezed him hard, kissing Daryl’s jawline.

“Not one fuckin’ bit, Grimes.” Daryl squeezed back, even harder, and grabbed a handful of Rick’s ass so he could pinch him. “You can take care’a yourself.”

“Don’t you want to know where the car is?” Rick asked, wincing from Daryl’s pinch. He took his hat back from him, shook snow off of it and pulled it back on his head.

“Yeah, where’s the car?” Eric asked, having finally stopped kissing Aaron.

“Grimes here drove it into a snow drift and couldn’t get it back out. We were twenty miles from home – had to walk the whole way back here!” He didn’t sound that mad about it, more like he was amused. 

“I’m not used to drivin’ in the snow!” Rick said by way of defending himself.

“Our drivers ed teachers used to drive the car _into_ a snowbank and we had to get it back out,” Aaron said laughing now. “Clearly that wasn’t something you learn to do in Georgia.”

“No need to,” Rick laughed, shaking his head. “We don’t get enough snow for it to form banks!” He’d pulled slightly away from Daryl but for some reason, Daryl himself didn’t feel like letting go of him. It was just them and Aaron and Eric; nobody else would see or judge. He just wanted to keep Rick within touching distance, not that he’d admit that out loud. 

Rick seemed to notice the hand Daryl had kept on his shoulder. He reached up with his own and clenched Daryl’s fingers, as if to reassure himself as much as Daryl that they were together again.

“Any other trouble out there?” Daryl asked.

“We passed a group of walkers,” Aaron turned to answer. “They were stuck in some ice. It was actually sorta funny… they were trying to move but they were all sluggish, from the cold, I guess.”

“We still gave ‘em a wide berth,” Rick added, noting Daryl’s look of concern. “Which wasn’t hard, given that they couldn’t really move much. I was thinkin’, might be a good idea to travel up farther north in the wintertime. Might be a lot safer.”

Daryl snorted. “If the roads are passable, you mean. Might be safe up there where it’s cold. Gettin’ there’s the problem.”

Rick laughed, shaking his head. “You got a point. Guess we’d have to plan ahead and leave before it gets too snowy. Maybe next year.”

He turned his smile on Daryl and the cold seemed to vanish. “For now, let’s get home with all this stuff.”

Daryl took the large duffle Rick had been lugging as Rick picked up his overstuffed backpack and Eric relieved Aaron of one of his big bags too and the four men set off for their homes. 

Daryl felt lighter than he had in hours, so grateful that Rick had returned safely and that neither he nor Aaron had gotten hurt out there. He glanced toward the other couple as they walked through the silent, snowy streets and saw Eric looking toward him, a big smile on his face. Daryl nodded back in response, his own lips tugging up in a small grin.

Rick noticed the exchange and smiled at Daryl, looking at him with his heart in his eyes. He had missed Daryl too, apparently. Under the fond scrutiny, Daryl felt himself blushing and hoped that Rick would attribute the reaction to the cold. 

Rick nodded his head and nudged Daryl with his elbow, grinning. Daryl let a full smile break free. 

“For once, getting’ back late from a run didn’t mean somethin’ bad happened,” Rick said. “Guess it’s a Christmas miracle.”

Daryl snorted. He had never believed in miracles at all, much less that they happened at Christmas time. Santa Claus had never visited his house, his family had never gone to church or put up a tree. Gifts hadn’t been exchanged. And after the world changed, nobody had celebrated the holiday. It had been too hard to just find shelter and food. Miracles were of their own making, stabbing walkers seconds before they bit your best friend, shooting a deer when everyone was hungry, finding clean blankets in an abandoned house. But now that he thought about how glad he was that Rick had gotten home safe when so much in the world could go wrong, it did sort of feel like a miracle.

They waved at Aaron and Eric as they turned to head toward their own house, wishing them Merry Christmas. Rick and Daryl looked at each other, both smiling. Rick leaned toward Daryl and kissed him on the lips, sweet and cold-turning-warm, then with a wink, said, “We better be gettin’ inside.”

They climbed the steps of their porch and Rick stomped his feet to get the snow off his boots as much as he could. Daryl figured he was making noise on purpose too because when he was done stomping, Rick pounded hard on the door. “Ho, ho ho!” Rick called, along with the pounding of his fist. “Merry Christmas! Let me in!”

The door was suddenly yanked open.

“Rick, have you gone crazy?” Carol was wearing a startled expression, half annoyed but half amused. Beside her, Michonne and Carl along with Maggie and Glenn crowded into the foyer. In Carl’s arms, Judith let out a whoop when she saw her father, chubby arms reaching for him.

“There’s my girl!” Rick said, dropping his gear and stepping inside to take his daughter in his arms. He kissed her cheek and made bubble sounds, causing her to laugh out loud. 

“Are you all right?” Carol was asking. “Where have you been?”

“Just out chasing down Santa to make sure he left gifts for everybody,” Rick answered, his eyes twinkling. He gazed around at his family members. “Y’all act like I was gone for a week or somethin’!”

Everybody relaxed then, all talking at once, trying to deny they had been worried. Rick told them he’d found most of the items they had asked him to look for and would give each individual their stuff later so they could wrap their presents for the others before morning. 

When Rick complained he was starving, Carol and Michonne pulled him into the kitchen where leftovers were soon reheated and hot cocoa was passed around. Daryl sat down near Rick, content to just keep his eyes on his lover as he relaxed, safe in the family group.

He told the others about the half frozen walkers, and admitted it was his fault he and Aaron had had to walk home. Eventually, Maggie and Glenn left for their own house, stopping briefly at Aaron and Eric’s to pick up the items Aaron had carried back for their Christmas gifts. 

An hour or so later, Daryl was in their room upstairs, waiting for Rick to finish handing out the items he’d brought back for the others. He finally opened the door and stepped inside, sighing as he leaned back against the door. “I’m beat,” he admitted to Daryl, looking as though all his energy had finally been exhausted. 

Daryl climbed off the bed and came toward him. “You walked twenty miles through a blizzard,” he chided, “what’d you expect?”

“I expect not to get teased about it,” he growled, pulling Daryl against him. He nipped playfully at Daryl’s earlobe, then kissed him deeply.

At the feel of the lean body against his, Daryl felt arousal spark through him. He had kind of thought Rick would be too tired, but the hardness pressing into his abdomen told a different story. Their kisses rapidly turned hotter, need and desire and love pushing fatigue and worry out of their minds.

“Thought you said you were beat,” Daryl teased, pulling Rick along as he backed up toward the bed.

“You’ve re-invigorated me,” Rick said, nuzzling under Daryl’s chin. He began undoing the buttons on Daryl’s shirt as Daryl went straight for Rick’s belt. 

In moments, they were both naked, sprawled on their wide bed. Rick was kissing and touching every part of Daryl he could reach and Daryl was sighing in response. He spread his legs so that Rick could rest between them, humping his hips and reveling in the feel of their cocks sliding together. 

“Need you,” Rick hissed as Daryl ran his hands up his back, encouraging the slide of their bodies as they moved together. “Thought about this every step of the way home.”

He plunged his tongue deep in Daryl’s mouth, grinding their hips together. Daryl needed him too, needed to feel Rick taking him, bonding them together. But there was one thing…

“We’re out of lube,” he managed to say between heated kisses, “or did you forget about that.”

“Didn’t forget,” Rick said, nipping along Daryl’s collarbone. “Carol will never miss the Crisco.”

“Crisco?!” Daryl all but yelped. 

“Don’t you know that’s what all the gay guys used to use?” Rick teased. He climbed off his lover and for a second, Daryl thought he was really going to head down to the kitchen to raid Carol’s cupboard.

Instead, Rick picked up his crumpled jeans and pulled a small bottle from his pocket. He waved the container of lube and unceremoniously fell back atop Daryl’s sprawled body.

“Merry Christmas,” he proclaimed. Daryl took the bottle from him, kissing him in relief. “And there’s more where that came from,” Rick confided. “The rest is in my duffle bag. Found a whole case in a store. Had to give half of it to Aaron though.”

“Fair’s fair,” Daryl agreed. He opened the bottle and handed it to Rick. “Use it on me,” he asked him, his voice going low and needful.

Rick rolled off him and to the side, looking over Daryl’s body with hungry eyes. “My pleasure.”

He knelt between Daryl’s spread legs then and ran his lubed fingers over him, stroking Daryl’s cock to fullness, teasing around and under his balls. Then, adding more lube to his talented fingers, Rick slowly eased first one and then two into Daryl’s eager body. He played with him for what seemed like forever, teasing and circling, nudging at his prostate in a way that made Daryl hot and hungry for more, gasping and sweating, forgetting the snow, the season, even the walkers.

Finally, Rick leaned back and drizzled more lube over his own stiff cock, then, locking eyes with Daryl, he pressed it inside him.

The entry was slow and deliciously deep. Daryl was relaxed, ready and willing to take all of Rick, as he always was, loving every inch his lover gave him. He’d never wanted to be possessed before meeting Rick, never wanted to share his body so intimately. But Rick was his everything and joining with him completed Daryl in ways he had never known he needed. He had felt empty, broken, wrong for most of his life; with Rick, he felt healed, needed, loved in every way a person could be loved.

Rick was fucking him in earnest now, sliding in and out in a slow rhythm, going deeper with every stroke, giving Daryl all the pleasure he’d never known in the world before or since, telling him without words how much Rick treasured him.

Higher and higher, Daryl wanted to last as long as he could, wanted to draw out the pleasure Rick was feeling inside him. He clenched down on Rick’s cock, reveling in the gasp his lover gave in reaction. Their eyes locked, their bodies strained together, the intimacy overwhelming them slowly and surely as the snow continued to fall outside.

Finally, as one, they came, stars bursting behind Daryl’s closed eyes, pleasure rocketing through his body, and he gripped Rick tightly, feeling the shudders run through the other man as he spent inside Daryl’s body.

“Merry Christmas,” Daryl whispered in his lover’s ear, surprising himself. He didn’t think he’d really ever said those words to anyone before. Same as he’d never said “I love you” until he’d been with Rick. 

Later, wrapped around each other, under warm quilts, the moon shining on the snow outside lighting their room with its soft glow, they fell asleep in each others’ arms.

The next morning, the kids woke them early. Carol and Michonne fixed a big breakfast, and everyone gathered in the living room to open their gifts. Maggie and Glenn came over to bring more presents and so did Aaron and Eric. Dinner was planned for later in the afternoon and most of the family and friends soon went off to get it together. Daryl contributed a turkey he’d shot and Rick produced cans of sweet potatoes and corn and peas, while Carol made bread with the yeast and flour Aaron brought over from their run.

Soon, Daryl and Rick were alone in the living room. Carl was playing his new video game that Rick had found for him, mindful that he not waste too much electricity but eager to have a new world to conquer. Judith was on the floor between Rick and Daryl, babbling to herself over the new doll she had, pretending to comb its hair and tugging at its clothes until Daryl helped her with the tiny buttons. When she got the doll naked, she wrapped her up in the little blanket that she’d gotten from Maggie for Christmas, hand crocheted of pink and blue yarn. 

Rick was looking over the case Daryl had made for him once again, still marveling at his lover’s skill. 

“I’ll treasure this,” he said softly, meeting Daryl’s eyes. “I wish I could have made something for you, but I’m not that crafty.”

Daryl scoffed. “You got me long underwear and a bottle of whiskey, man,” he smiled. “You can get me drunk and peel those long johns offa me any time. Seems like you’re pretty crafty to me.”

Rick laughed, sounding happier than he had in a long time. “I didn’t pick those out with that in mind,” he said, “just thought about how cold it’s been getting’.”

“Yeah, right.” Daryl kissed him. “I do appreciate the long johns. Tired of freezin’ my ass off out there. And we can share the alcohol.”

They kissed again, only breaking apart when Judith made complaining noises that they weren’t paying attention to her. Daryl pulled her into the circle of their embrace, kissing her soft cheek.

“Merry Christmas, Ass-kicker,” he crooned. “Everything’s okay.”

“It sure is,” Rick added, tweaking Judith’s little nose. He smiled again at Daryl and Daryl smiled back. The fire, the warm house, the smells of cooking food and their friends and family nearby was enough to make the world seem safe and decent once again. It was a feeling Daryl decided he could get used to. It might only last a short time, but he was glad to savor it.

“Merry Christmas, Rick,” he said softly. 

Rick leaned over Judith’s head to kiss him once more. “Merry Christmas, Daryl.”


End file.
